Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse expressed optimism for 2026 as Flare CEO Hugo Philion targets $5 billion in XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) staked on Flare by mid-2026 through direct XRP Ledger integration.
The ‘Flip The Switch’ Explanation
Garlinghouse addressed the XRP community’s “flip the switch” narrative at the Sydney conference, explaining there’s no single master trigger event.
“There’s not one switch. There’s a hundred switches. There’s a thousand switches,” he said.
He explained progress comes from hundreds of small steps.
Each development may seem minor individually, but together they create exponential impact. “It’s taken a little longer in some cases.
On the other hand, we’ve made so much progress, and you’re seeing more and more of these little switches flip.”
Garlinghouse expressed optimism for 2026 and beyond.
He credited the community’s role in debunking misinformation and pushing back against doubt as additional switches being flipped.
“At some point you’re going to feel like, oh my gosh, the switch did get flipped. But it wasn’t one. It was the culmination of a decade of work.”
The phrase originated in January 2019 when Garlinghouse told Fortune that banks were ready to “flip the switch” on xRapid after completing pilot programs.
The community expanded this into a broader belief that one infrastructure or regulatory event would immediately reprice XRP.
The Flare $5 Billion Target
Flare CEO Hugo Philion provided concrete targets during a separate appearance. “I genuinely think we could get to five billion by the middle of 2026 with a good tailwind,” Philion said, referring to XRP value staked on Flare.
Flare is working with Xaman, one of the major XRP Ledger wallets, to create a smart account enabling users to stake directly from XRP Ledger into Flare without touching the bridge or transacting on Flare.
Xaman holds roughly 4 billion XRP through its wallet—approximately $12 billion in value.
Philion believes Flare can capture a reasonable amount of assets used in Xaman through this direct staking integration.
The smart account eliminates friction by letting XRP holders stake through Xaman without learning new interfaces or bridging assets manually.
This direct pathway could unlock billions in dormant XRP for staking on Flare’s network.
Image: Shutterstock
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